At the end of the month I expect to have an additional $500 left over, ear marked for a slush fund, and paying for medicines and such. Also, I set aside mad money for my wife to use on herself, not me, or clothes, hygiene, just on stuff of $150. Daily progress and measurement is essential when dealing with a budget or debt. One mistake can cost you months of work and really throw you off. I used to worry that the number in my checking account may not be enough to make everything come together. I can unequivocally state that now, I just don't care. This might sound a little illogical, but it makes it a lot easier to recover psychologically from months where you couldn't stay on your budget. Interestingly, this is the only rule that the software enforces, but if you are keen on having a negative balance, you can actually override this yourself by budgeting the shortfall as a negative amount for the following month.
I'm trying to convince my dad to get the program, but he's waiting to see how I fair with it in the next three months. I have been using Money software for transactions and an Excel spreadsheet for budgeting for several years now.
Maybe a simpler version would make it more workable and thus more likely to be used for the long haul. Have tried mint, iBank, quicken, money, and just about every other money tracking software but they all left me disappointed in how long it took to input data. But with YNAB somehow I am paying off my credit card debt, saving, and being able to afford my life. The best thing about YNAB is that I know exactly how much money I have for everything.
For a while, I learned to write macros in Excel and started creating my own envelope system spreadsheet, but I was always searching for something else to make things simpler. Apparently the Quicken 2008 will allow for a more envelop budgeting experience, but I'm not going back. I am also doing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program and just this month have become debt-free except for the house. Last month on the DR forums I read about YNAB and how many DR followers use it. Rule Two is that you must operate a zero based budget. Every dollar of income needs to be assigned to a budget category. Instead of spending blindly and wondering where all our money went, we now know exactly where it went, but more importantly we know ahead where it is going. YNAB makes all of this easy to keep track of, but as mentioned by other reviewers it isn't a miraculous "fix it" program.
I followed the setup guide and searched through the user forums to help me figure out one or two things that I didn't understand at first. Go to the FAQ section of their user forums to find the "cheat sheet" to get started on the right foot. We had two good incomes, but way too much debt and after paying all the bills each pay day (mostly credit card installments) we were left with just a few hundred dollars to survive on until the next pay day. Bankruptcy or debt settlement was considered, but thankfully we found YNAB instead.
The 4 rules and the actual program of dealing with a buffer have a bit of a learning curve to them, and took me a little while to understand how it actually works, but the support forum at their web site combined with a thorough reading of the manual a couple times led me to eventually figure it out. Don't expect to just install the software and start using it without some instructions first. If you are moving from Quicken/Money, you'll have a sense of missing "bells & whistles" but mostly those really are features that YNAB isn't trying to duplicate. The software seems very robust so far, I've seen no bugs at all, no crashes on my Win7 machine.
I'm trying to convince my dad to get the program, but he's waiting to see how I fair with it in the next three months. I have been using Money software for transactions and an Excel spreadsheet for budgeting for several years now.
Maybe a simpler version would make it more workable and thus more likely to be used for the long haul. Have tried mint, iBank, quicken, money, and just about every other money tracking software but they all left me disappointed in how long it took to input data. But with YNAB somehow I am paying off my credit card debt, saving, and being able to afford my life. The best thing about YNAB is that I know exactly how much money I have for everything.
For a while, I learned to write macros in Excel and started creating my own envelope system spreadsheet, but I was always searching for something else to make things simpler. Apparently the Quicken 2008 will allow for a more envelop budgeting experience, but I'm not going back. I am also doing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program and just this month have become debt-free except for the house. Last month on the DR forums I read about YNAB and how many DR followers use it. Rule Two is that you must operate a zero based budget. Every dollar of income needs to be assigned to a budget category. Instead of spending blindly and wondering where all our money went, we now know exactly where it went, but more importantly we know ahead where it is going. YNAB makes all of this easy to keep track of, but as mentioned by other reviewers it isn't a miraculous "fix it" program.
I followed the setup guide and searched through the user forums to help me figure out one or two things that I didn't understand at first. Go to the FAQ section of their user forums to find the "cheat sheet" to get started on the right foot. We had two good incomes, but way too much debt and after paying all the bills each pay day (mostly credit card installments) we were left with just a few hundred dollars to survive on until the next pay day. Bankruptcy or debt settlement was considered, but thankfully we found YNAB instead.
The 4 rules and the actual program of dealing with a buffer have a bit of a learning curve to them, and took me a little while to understand how it actually works, but the support forum at their web site combined with a thorough reading of the manual a couple times led me to eventually figure it out. Don't expect to just install the software and start using it without some instructions first. If you are moving from Quicken/Money, you'll have a sense of missing "bells & whistles" but mostly those really are features that YNAB isn't trying to duplicate. The software seems very robust so far, I've seen no bugs at all, no crashes on my Win7 machine.
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However, I wanted to get back in touch with my budgeting because I mainly do it in my head, and it can get stressful because I "budgeted" by limiting my expenses at all times. Laundry Cabinets.
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